India NEWS

Once the highest gas producing fields, KG-D6 block of Reliance Industries are now "a late life stage". The company informed that these fields are "in a late stage and affected by low pressure and water ingress related challenges". However, in order to increase output, Reliance will bring three sets of new discoveries to production in 2020.

Reliance Industries Ltd registered a 7% jump in net profits for the first quarter ending June 30th. The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate recorded ₹10,141 crores in net profits, despite frail global macroeconomic situation and perilous hydrocarbon market conditions. While growth in RIL’s revenue came mostly from Digital Services and Retail business, the Refining and Marketing division saw a performance drop due to a considerably lesser product cracks on Y-o-Y basis.

BP's Chief Executive has informed that both RIL and BP will be together investing $5 billion on three gas development projects. These projects are located in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin. “Strong relationship between BP and reliance is another great example of what can be achieved by working together at scale", said Looney. Under the latest OALP, the companies have also won an ultra deep-water offshore block in the KG basin.

As Iran seeks new possibilities of growth amidst debilitating U.S. sanctions, the country’s ambassador to India has said that Iran is ready to invest in the expansion of a South Indian refinery. Chennai Petroleum (CPCL) seeks to invest about $5.1 billion to expand Nagapattinam refinery to a 180,000-bpd plant. Naftiran Intertrade, the Swiss subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company, own a 15.4% stake in CPCL.

Chevron-McDermott joint venture, Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) has landed the license and engineering contracts for a Lubricants Base Oil plant at Haldia Refinery in India. CLG will deploy its proprietary ISODEWAXING and ISOFINISHING technologies at the 270 TMTPA plant. The newly-designed unit will process unconverted oil from an upstream hydrocracking unit to yield premium API Group III base oils.

Assam Gas Company Ltd (AGCL), Oil India Limited (OIL) and GAIL Gas Ltd inked an agreement to setup a joint venture. The JV will work towards the execution of the City Gas Distribution (CGD) Networks, apart from supplying Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and CNG. While the PNG will be supplied to the domestic, commercial and industrial customers, CNG will be provided to the vehicles in different districts of Assam.

The continuously depleting natural resources have brought oil companies around the world in a difficult situation. With the Indian government focusing on 'Jal Shakti' in its second term, the energy giants of the nation are seeking corporate social salvation. ONGC has started its second clean-up drive in select areas of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Indian oil, on the other hand, is rejuvenating 37 water bodies across 14 states.

With Prime Minster Modi looking to keep the budget deficit in check, India will most probably let go of the reigns to major oil and gas firms. Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM in an interview on Monday said that the Government has recognized major energy firms ONGC, IOCL, GAIL as probable candidates for cutting its direct holding to below 51%. The move aims at reviving investments to ramp up economic growth.

Vedanta has won 10 blocks in the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Round II and Round III. The firm informed that over the period of the next 3-4 years, it will invest $245 million on exploration in these blocks. Now Vedanta will enter into 10 revenue sharing contracts with the government. It said, "The group believes that the transaction complements its existing strategy to focus on production growth".

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) yesterday released the list of winners of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Round II and III. While state-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) secured 12 exploration blocks, Vedanta Ltd won 10 and ONGC got eight blocks. RIL and BP Plc together won a gas block in KG basin. The government had put 32 oil and gas exploration & production blocks on auction under OALP.

India-based Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) yesterday informed about entering a conditional agreement to acquire Hardy Oil and Gas’ Indian project office. Hardy E&P holds a tactical position in the oil and gas basins on the east coast of India and near the Bombay High field. Hardy E&P had been active in India’s oil and gas sector for more than two decades.

L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering, yesterday, informed in a regulatory filing about landing twin orders from oil major, ONGC. The contract requires L&T to carry out EPCIC services for the development of Heera Panna block and Mumbai High South field of the western offshore basin near Mumbai. L&T secured the contracts through international competitive bidding.

India has registered a record jump of 6.2% in Ethanol-blending in petrol, staying in line with the Government’s strategy to achieve 10% blending percentage of ethanol in petrol by 2022. The Modi government sanctioned Rs 1969 crore to fund 2G ethanol projects over the next six years. The measures seem to have lifted the purchase of the biofuel over the years.

While India’s refinery major, HPCL continues to acknowledge its majority shareholder ONGC as a promoter, the Government of India has now stepped up and started giving ONGC its due credit. Sources have revealed that state headhunter PSEB called on ONGC Director to assist in picking the new Director (Finance), HPCL. ONGC completely acquired Government’s 51.11% stake in HPCL last year, the refiner has consistently listed "President of India" as its promoter.

Maharashtra’s Chief Minister yesterday informed about identifying a new site for the proposed $44 billion oil refinery built by a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, ADNOC and state-run oil firms. Maharashtra has selected Raigad district, about 100 kms from Mumbai for the refinery. The 1.2 million bpd refinery and associated petrochemical complex, which was earlier supposed to be constructed in Ratnagiri, faced vehement protests from the farmers in the region.

Cairn Oil and Gas has planned to invest Rs 7,924 crore on various sectors of upstream over the next decade. The company has strategized the drilling of additional 123 exploration and development wells at Ravva oil field in Krishna Godavari basin off the Andhra coast. In the last financial year, the company's average daily working interest production from Ravva field declined by 13%.

In response to the approaching monsoon season in India, E&P major ONGC has re-located a record 35 offshore drilling rigs to new positions. Offshore engineering consultant, Aqualis Offshore, yesterday, informed about assisting the oil major in moving majority of the rigs. The firm deployed a specialist team of mariners and structural and geotechnical engineers who worked closely with ONGC’s in-house rig move cell.

If sources were to be believed, India’s E&P major, ONGC will soon auction off over 60 discovered small and marginal fields to private companies. ONGC will follow the production enhancement contracts (PEC) mechanism to auction the fields to global energy firms. People aware of the development said that leading services firm KPMG has been made aware of ONGC’s decision to carry out the PEC process.